We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Chicago Improv

Our city’s most famous contribution to theatre history revolves around the Second City. The famous comedy club in Old Town has its roots in Hyde Park back in the ’50s. A group of UChicago students started performing commedia dell’arte shows in the Compass Bar on 55th Street. The Compass Players created highly-structured prompts and games which the performers improvised within, which became the touchstone of Chicago’s improv comedy scene. Helped along by some truly incredible talent, not least the world-famous duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, these young performers helped start The Second City and shaped 20th-century American comedy.

Tony-Winning Theatre Companies

No slight against our improv impresarios, but comedy clubs are not what people think they see “theatre” spelled with an re. For that sort of high culture, we look to our bevy of Tony-winning companies. The Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, and Lookingglass companies represent the biggest concentration of high-profile professional theatre outside Manhattan. No other city comes close to our collection of Regional Theatre Tony Awards.

Many of these companies occupy fascinating historical spaces. The Goodman sits in the beautifully revived Harris and Selwyn Theaters. Victory Gardens performs in the iconic Biograph Theater, where Dillinger met his end. Chicago Shakes, of course, performs in their fabulous Navy Pier venue, and Lookingglass calls the historic Water Works its home. Seeing shows at these fantastic spaces is also a trip into the history of Chicago’s theatre architecture.

Neighborhood Theatres

The Tony-winning heavyweights didn’t start out as Chicago theatre colossi, of course. With the exception of the Goodman, these companies began as storefront neighborhood theatres. “Off-Loop” theater companies sprang up throughout the city in the 1960s and ’70s. Inspired by the Compass Players, spurred to action by political and social unrest, and permitted to operate in small spaces for the first time thanks to relaxed building codes, suddenly small theaters were in every Chicago neighborhood. Non-profit theater companies like The Body Politic paved the way for the vibrant Off-Loop Chicago theatre that still exists.

These tiny theatrical companies, often operating on minimal budgets, are the beating heart of Chicago theatre. Often dedicated to esoteric, avant garde, or socially conscious causes, they offer abundant creative freedom. The 200 or so storefront companies also provide the most common starting point for Chicago’s theatrical talent. Actors, writers, designers and directors can cut their teeth and build their resumes in this thriving scene.

Experimental Theatre

Those tiny storefront theaters also represent another of Chicago’s major contributions to theatre history– experimental theatre. Mind-bending experimentation abounded in the 1960s and ’70s small companies, like when Organic Theatre Company mounted a “DIY sci-fi play” called Warp! in 1971. Chicago’s history with experimental theatre is way older than that though. Around the 1910s, Chicago was a center of the Little Theatre Movement, a rejection of the crass commercialism of more mainstream theatre at the time.

The legacy of the experimental theatre companies is carried on today by  The Neo-Futurists, a wildly successful experimental company in Andersonville. Founded back in 1988 and inspired by the Italian Futurist movement, the Neo-Futurists perform with reckless abandon. They embrace immediacy and energy, creating “[w]ork that embraces those unreached or unmoved by conventional theater – inspiring them to thought, feeling and action.”

Youth Theatre

Children’s theatre has a long history in Chicago too. It can trace its roots to the experimental theatre of the Little Theatre Movement in the Progressive Era. Alice Gerstenberg, a feminist playwright and active member of Chicago’s Little Theatre, established the Junior League Children’s Theater in 1921. Chicago children were treading the boards at Hull House around the same time too, with youth drama classes and performances an integral part of the settlement house’s services for Near West Side children.

Today, drama programs in Chicago schools continue the tradition, and community-based programs like the inimitable Albany Park Theater Project represent some of the best theatre in the city. As we detailed last year, our tour guides proudly donate 50% of their gratuities to support APTP. Their mission, bringing young people of every background together to create luminous and rich theatrical experiences. Their work perfectly dovetails with our own ethos. APTP is between shows right now, but we know that a new production is in the works. Can’t wait to see it and share it with the world.

Black Theatre

Black Chicagoans created a robust theatre scene in the Black Belt in the early twentieth century. The famed Pekin Theatre opened in 1905 as the country’s first black-owned and operated vaudeville theatre in the country. Later, black playwrights and actors used theatre to challenge segregation and inequality. Langston Hughes founded the Skyloft Players ensemble in 1941 as “a theater OF the people FOR the people BY the people.” In the 1970s, Chicago’s legacy of black theater was continued with the creation of the Black Ensemble Theater, located in Uptown. Founded by the inimitable Jackie Taylor, BE’s mission is “to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.” The Black Ensemble Theater’s shows are often jukebox musicals celebrating overlooked or under-appreciated black performers. Common consensus is that the shows are so joyful and entertaining that the audience is dancing by curtain call.

Celebrating Chicago Theatre History in 2019

The Year of Chicago Theatre affords a great opportunity to appreciate Chicago Theatre history. Sponsored by City Hall and the League of Chicago Theatres, it’s the first citywide theatre festival of its kind. Events include theatrical performances in all 77 community areas, plus major funding and visibility boosts for the city’s 200+ theaters and companies. Inevitably, these celebrations highlight just how much great theatrical work is done here. From the biggest Broadway in Chicago venues to the smallest indie storefronts, this is a town that puts on a great show. We might not have the Great White Way, but Chicago theatre can go toe-to-toe with any other toddling theatre town.

– Alex Bean and Marie Rowley

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

#AOTMCOUNTDOWN One week and counting! We'll see you all next Saturday for the launch of Art on theMART! #artontheMART #theMART pic.twitter.com/A8danfp2YP

— Art on The Mart (@artonthemart) September 22, 2018

#1. Art on the Mart

We’ll start with the big debutante. Art on the Mart will transform the historic Merchandise Mart into one of the largest art canvasses in history. If all goes to plan, then eight digital projectors will illuminate the 2.5-acres of the Mart’s river-facing facade. Four notable video artists, most of whom are local, have created the inaugural displays. You can expect to see a range of subject, from abstract imagery to figures of elephants, zebras and giraffes on Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya. Current plans call for Art on the Mart to operate five nights a week from March to December. The big party for the first showing, on the 29th, will feature a live DJ (slight eye-roll), food trucks, and fireworks. Could be fun, but I imagine most will discover Art on the Mart on their own future wanderings around downtown.

#2. Black Tiberinus on the Riverwalk

The #ChicagoRiverWalk has something new to show off! Introducing "Black Tiberinus," a large-scale, site-specific work by Chicago-based artist Robert Burnier… expected to be completed later this summer and will remain on display through May 2019. @ChiRiverwalk pic.twitter.com/l9rkBD5Xx1

— Chicago DCASE (@ChicagoDCASE) July 12, 2018

Just a stone’s throw from Art on the Mart is another public art installation. Black Tiberinus is a modern sculpture installation in the “Riverbank” room at Wolf Point. As noted in the image above, local artist Robert Burnier created the piece for that particular curved section of the Riverwalk. The name references the Tiber River. The Roman god Tiberinus protected it in antiquity. As with much abstract art my response is a general “huh…okay.” I’d still mark this as an improvement on the kitschy giant deer sculpture from last year. Also, it’d be cool if DCASE just turned this Riverwalk room into an annually-rotating sculpture gallery.

#3. K9s for Cops

Meet the newest member of the @TMOMagMile Family!! If you’re on #TheMagMile come by & snap a picture! #K9sForCops #AreYouWithUs #Love pic.twitter.com/g8nizeLNAU

— T-Mobile Mag Mile (@TMOMagMile) August 14, 2018

Any stroll down Michigan Avenue these past few months, including many runs of the Historic Chicago Walking Bar Tour, has included some dog-dodging. K9s for Cops is the series of 50 large dog sculptures dotted along the length of the Mag Mile since July. The sculptures pay tribute to the 70 members of the Chicago PD’s K9 unit. Each dog sculpture is a unique design. Some are corporate tie-ins while others pay tribute to first responders lost in the line of duty. Time to see these is running short, since they’re scheduled for removal on September 30th. After that, the sculptures will be auctioned off. Proceeds go to the families of first responders who lost their lives. Personally, they keep reminding me of the famous Cows on Parade back in 1999.

#4. Rush More at the Cultural Center

The backside of the Chicago Cultural Center is now a monument to Chicago’s women. “Rush More” is a gigantic mural which honors 20 of the most influential women in Chicago history. The Detours staff have been huge fans from the drop, since we’re very into badass Chicago women as evidenced from our event for Women’s History Month. A non-profit called Murals of Acceptance commissioned the work from South Side artist Kerry James Marshall.

According to a DNAInfo story, the artist “aim[ed] to brighten up the narrow, alley-like street by adding a ‘parklike view’ with a bright sun and trees.” Visitors will definitely spot recognizable faces like Oprah Winfrey and Maggie Daley. I love that women a little further from the spotlight, like Sandra Cisneros, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Harriet Monroe, also made it onto our Rushmore. It makes a great finale for the Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour, since we end right there at the Cultural Center!

Public Art’s Role in Chicago History

As I wrote a few years ago, public art plays a big role in Chicago’s history. These expressions of civic spirit fundamentally shape the way we think of ourselves and experience the city. Exciting new projects, like Art on the Mart, carry on the progress begun by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the Chicago Picasso. Some of these works will wind up being thought of alongside those past triumphs across Chicago history.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager

A Neighborhood Like No Other

The shows I’ve seen at Albany Park Theater Project are incredible. I was a theater kid all through high school and college. Countless hours spent watching rehearsals and performances of student, community, and professional troupes. Only a handful were as emotionally engaging and thematically potent as the productions at APTP. I’m not alone in feeling this way. APTP has presented multiple shows at the Tony Award-winning Goodman Theatre.

The secret to their success is in the young people from the neighborhood who devise and perform their original productions. Albany Park is one of the most diverse communities in Chicago, maybe even the whole country. Many immigrant communities have flourished here, most substantially Latinos from Mexico and Central America. But prominent communities from the Balkans, Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia live there as well. So the students at the Albany Park Theater Project represent a huge swath of humanity.

Devising and Performing at Albany Park Theater Project

The neighborhood and performers offer a compelling enough reason to support APTP. But the unique nature of their theatrical performances deserves some explanation and praise as well. The Albany Park Theater Project practices devised theater. The tdf Theatre Dictionary defines it thusly:

“[D]evised theater typically begins with little more than a rehearsal space and a group of eager, committed theatre practitioners. Through a series of improvisatory theatre games or other conceptual ice-breakers, they start to tease out the kinds of stories they’d like to tell and the way they’d like to tell them. Over time, a text emerges, one covered with the fingerprints of each and every participant.”

So each of the high school youth ensemble members at APTP help create the show that they’ll eventually perform. This means the shows reflect the diverse cultural heritage and personal memories of Albany Park’s youth. I’ve seen two of their shows, “Home/Land” and “Ofrenda.” Both focused on the contemporary immigrant experience from the perspective of the young and vulnerable. I could not help but be emotionally affected, especially considering the current political relevance.

A Historic Venue

As a local architecture and history nerd, I couldn’t help but highlight the fascinating building which the Albany Park Theater Project performs in. APTP performs in the Eugene Field Park Field House. Local architect Clarence Hatzfeld designed the structure, which has stood in the park since 1930. Hatzfeld is best remembered for his Prairie School buildings for Chicago Public Schools. He changed up his style for this field house, opting for a Tudor Revival look. It lends a gracious air to the space.

Chicago Detours Giving Initiative

As we’ve written before, the guides at Chicago Detours always donate half our tips to a good cause. In the past, we’ve given money to a scholarship fund for local architecture and history majors. Other substantial donations have gone to the Rebuilding Exchange and Archeworks. Our donations have gone to the Albany Park Theater Project since this past spring. We average 275 guests a month, so our total donation will be in the thousands. It’s humbling to know that some of the work we do leads to the creative and cultural development of Chicago’s youth.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting the Albany Park Theater Project by attending a future show, by signing up for their online mailing list, making a donation on their website, or giving at the end of a tour.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

Ghost signs are historic advertisements, usually painted on the sides of buildings, which have been left up for decades. Many of them, perhaps even most, call attention to businesses which no longer exist. They haunt the sidewalls of buildings all over the city. For curious folks, like us at Chicago Detours, they’re irresistible. What was this business When did they pay to put this ad up Why does it still exist after all this time We picked out a few of our favorite ghost signs in Chicago and decided to investigate.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

The Ferris Wheel Restaurant Ghost Sign in The Loop

We’ll start right in the heart of the Loop with a sentimental favorite of Amanda, our Executive Director. A ghost sign for the Ferris Wheel Restaurant can still be spied on the north side of the historic Singer Building. Located across the street from the Palmer House Hotel, the restaurant was reputed to draw in visiting celebrities alongside office workers from the neighborhood. Amanda fondly remembers the pancakes.

The restaurant closed in 2000, and its gloriously old-fashioned ground floor signage, disappeared in 2000. But way up around the 8th or 9th floors one can still spot the restaurant’s ghost sign. What makes this one unique is its wonky lettering. Perhaps it was done personally by the owners as a cost-saving measure If you’re looking for it, the best spot is at the northwest corner of Monroe and State. Look about a half-block south and across State and you can’t miss it.

Ghost Signs and Street Art on Printer’s Row

Printer’s Row, in the South Loop, is a veritable bonanza of both contemporary street art and historic ghost signs. It’s hard to go a block without coming across a wall emblazoned with something eye-catching. I love the mishmash of ghost signs and street art on the Lightner Building on S. Michigan Ave. The eponymous former tenant, the Lightner Publishing Company, put out Hobbies Magazine. A ghost sign for that periodical, as well as other publications by former tenants, brush up against a massive mural completed just last year.

Head south down Michigan Avenue to view these ghost signs. The building sits at the intersection of Michigan and 11th Street. You can’t miss the ghost signs if you’re approaching from the north. There’s even a parking lot that you can duck into to take a bunch of photos.

Former Hotels in Lincoln Park and Lakeview

I first became fascinated with ghost signs because one appeared on my own block in Lincoln Park. Last summer, a neighborhood grocery store down the street was torn down and revealed a long-hidden ghost sign. The sign advertised the Ambassador Hotel, which is the original name for the building at Diversey and Pine Grove. The grocery store was constructed next door in 1927, which is likely when the sign was covered up. The sign hid behind a masonry wall for nearly 90 years before being rediscovered. Sadly, workers quickly painted over the Ambassador Hotel’s ghost sign in anticipation of new construction.

However, another hotel’s ghost sign is just a block away. The Belair Hotel, at 424 W. Diversey, was a single-room occupancy hotel, also in Lincoln Park. These hotels mainly served single men who were new to the city in the 1920 and looking for new jobs. For decades, they were clean, convenient, and hip places to live. That reputation changed over time, of course. The hotel only closed in 2011; it was one of the last remnants of the old working-class Lincoln Park.

To spot the ghost sign, head to the corner of Diversey and Sheridan. You’ll see the sign tattooed on the eastern side of the old hotel building. The best vantage point is from the sidewalk below.

You can find a multitude of other ghost signs in Chicago. Hit the streets and let us know which are your favorites! You can always share with us via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

-Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

In the past few years, Theaster Gates has established himself as one of the fine arts world’s biggest stars. Born and raised here in Chicago, he has made his name as “social practice installation art” in the oft-neglected neighborhoods of the South Side. In the process, Gates has become a force behind the celebration and preservation of Black history in Chicago.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Stony Island Arts Bank

Take his Stony Island Arts Bank for example. The institution is in a former bank on South Stony Island Avenue which Gates purchased from the city for $1. He and the Rebuild Foundation have since turned it into a gallery and community center. And it houses some incredible resources that are very valuable for the study of black history. They have the record collection of Frankie Knuckles, the “godfather of Chicago house.” You can also visit the Johnson Publishing Archive, which includes books and periodicals from the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.

How Theaster Gates Came to Connect Art and Urban Renewal

Theaster Gates, the only boy and youngest of nine children in a working class family, grew up in East Garfield Park. A profile of him in The New Yorker sheds some light on how his youthful experiences influenced his later interests.

“By the time Gates was a teen-ager, gangs and crack ruled, and the city addressed the problem by bulldozing historic buildings that were being used as drug dens. ‘Growing up, I’m watching the West Side get systematically deconstructed, Gates recalls. ‘I’m watching the destruction of the most beautiful buildings in my neighborhood.'”

After graduating from Lane Tech College Prep High School on Chicago’s north side, Gates acquired a dizzying number of degrees. He earned a B.S. in Urban Planning from Iowa State University, an M.A. in Fine Arts and Religion from Cape Town University, and a multidisciplinary M.S. in urban planning, religion, and ceramics from Iowa State (again). Personally, I felt burned out after getting my M.A. from the University of Chicago. The idea of chasing down all those post-graduate degrees just makes me want to nap!

Gates focused his arts studies in pottery and it landed him a job as an arts programmer at UChicago in 2006. He moved into Grand Crossing and, almost by accident, began a project of arts-based urban renewal.

Rebuilding Chicago Through Art

Upon moving into Grand Crossing, Theater Gates bought a former candy store. His plan was to make it into a personal pottery studio and living space. Instead, he eventually gutted and rehabbed the candy store. He filled it with thousands of vinyl records acquired from a closed record store, dubbed it the Listening House, and opened it to the public.

Gates did a similar gut-and-rehab project on a neighboring building. He filled it with books from a closed store on Prairie Avenue and the university’s glass lantern slide collection. This building is named the Archive House and, along with the Listening House, forms the core of the Dorchester Projects.

Gates used the Dorchester Project as the basis for the Rebuild Foundation. The foundation describes itself as “platform for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation. Our projects support artists and strengthen communities by providing free arts programming, creating new cultural amenities, and developing affordable housing, studio, and live-work space.”

The idea, at its base, combines several threads of Gates’ experiences. The foundation buys and redevelops buildings in historically black neighborhoods. The resulting cultural venues help organically regenerate the surrounding community. It’s a bottom-up and constructive form of urban renewal and historic preservation.

Does Theaster Gates Provide a Model for Renewal?

The Rebuild Foundation has revitalized over a dozen dilapidated buildings, and not just in Chicago. They have projects in Omaha, Nebraska, St. Louis, Missouri, and Gary, Indiana. Their work has created 50,000 square feet of new residential space and 75,000 square feet of commercial space, including public venues for cultural programs and affordable live/work spaces for artists.

Disaster lurks around every corner when you consider the history of urban renewal in Chicago. City Hall has typically been pretty bad at handling big renewal projects. Just ask anyone who has taken a Downtown Bucket List private tour where we talk about the disastrous redevelopment of Block 37.

Even worse, the city’s housing history is fraught with racism, injustice, and plain-old poor planning. All of that has led to concentrated poverty in the old projects and a lack of development in Black and Latino neighborhoods. Any and all spaces adjacent to downtown have been gentrified. As Theaster Gates noted, the city was also actively involved in the destruction of historic buildings in many Black and Latino neighborhoods.

This civic incompetence and neglect has created huge swathes of blight within Chicago. That blight destroys a neighborhood’s communal feeling and sense of its own history. Much of the city’s violence is concentrated in these neighborhoods, which is not at all a coincidence. We can touch upon many of these themes during a private Neighborhoods Tour custom designed to roll past the Gates’ Currency Exchange Cafe.

In my opinion, officials at every level should be looking for more opportunities like the Stony Island Arts Banks. It should be an easy decision between focusing on Theaster Gates-style arts-based renewal and “sending in the Feds.”

–Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

This Chicago Gift Guide 2016 is your one-stop list for finding cool Chicago presents this holiday season. With all my love of Chicago, I know I’d be tickled to receive a locally-made gift! And it’s even better if it’s specifically Chicago-themed, tied to either Chicago history or architecture. By the way, you can explore Chicago’s holiday season history and traditions on our annual Holiday Tour of Drinks, Daleys and Dead Guys.

So consider this Chicago gift guide as us pointing you in the right direction for gift ideas for those Chicagoans who are interested in the city’s history, architecture, and culture.

1. Pendants and Necklaces from Paperish Mess

Our first suggestion in the Chicago Gift Guide 2016 is Paperish Mess. Located at Damen and Chicago in Ukrainian Village, this cute little shop has original artwork, handmade goods and wares by independent artists.

We love the pendants, ornaments, and necklaces designed by the proprietors. They hand paint them. They’re a far cry from the rote jewelry and decor you might find at bigger retailers and can add an individual flair to your decor. And of course, I particularly like the necklaces that circle the word “Chicago.”

2. Chicago Architecture Miniskirts on RedBubble

RedBubble is an online retailer of clothing and art created by a global community of artists and designers. We found a ton of cool stuff on there, but my absolute favorites are the Chicago and University of Chicago miniskirts. They have printed actual photographic images of Chicago architecture, like the Rockefeller Chapel, right on the skirts.

What Chicagoan wouldn’t love to have the iconic Art Deco facade of the Board of Trade straddling their waist Or maybe an outfit that lets potential study buddies know that you like to JSTOR and Chill Just, uh, make sure you know what that phrase means before making that particular purchase. It’s like a new fashion in clothing. We could call it “geek chic.”

3. Art for Less Than $500 from Vertical Gallery

Vertical Gallery, which is also located in Ukrainian Village, is an art gallery founded in 2013 and “committed to exhibiting and promoting urban, contemporary and street art.” They have a special “Holiday Show” opening on Saturday, December 12th.

They have dozens of works of art listed at $500 and lower. The options include works by Chicago-based artists, many of whom have contributed murals and other forms of street art to our cityscape. Street art is huge right now, but there’s a history to it, too! If your recipient is new to the art scene, then just grab a copy of the Chicago Street Art Book.

If you want to experience street art for yourself, keep your eyes peeled for our Pilsen Tour in 2017 (or we get a little bit of it on our Chicago Neighborhoods Tour for private groups, which is available now).

4. Adopt an Animal at the Shedd Aquarium

If you’re reading this blog, then the Shedd Aquarium should need no introduction. Everyone knows this Chicago museum is awesome. Its fabulous architecture and enrapturing exhibits are always worth a visit.

What you might not know of is their Adopt-an-Animal Program. You can donate $25, $50, or $75 to support one of the Shedd’s penguins, dolphins, otters, sharks, or Beluga whales. Your gift recipient will get a plush animal, a photo of the living critter being supported, and a certificate. The donation is partially tax deductible, too.

5. Graham Foundation Bookshop

Got a Chicago architecture nut on your gift list, but you know they’ve read all the major works Swing by the Graham Foundation’s bookshop is the perfect gift stop for some unique writing and perspectives on architecture.

The bookshop is located in the foundation’s HQ in the Gold Coast. It exclusively features works written by the foundation’s grantees, who create more creative and intellectually charged projects in architecture. And a visit there means you get to step into the elegant architecture of a Prairie-Style Gold Coast mansion.

The foundation has worked for over 50 years “to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society.” Knowing that, it seems like a safe bet that they’ll have a book that will scratch the Chicago architectural itch.

6. Wrightwood Furniture Industrial Collection

Wrightwood Furniture is a father-and-son shop specializing in colorful, unique furniture that is ecofriendly. The owners pride themselves on importing quality furniture from around the world without relying on middlemen.

I’m particularly fond of their Industrial Furnishings collection. The minimalist aesthetic of these pieces recalls the stripped-down efficiency of the Chicago factories or the “less is more” high Modernist structures of Mies van der Rohe. And they even have a bunch of Chicago flag swag.

7. Artistic Shoes from Bucketfeet

I’ll admit that the idea of “artistic shoes” threw me for a loop when I first heard about. It was my normcore showing. But the footwear that Bucketfeet produces are wonderfully unique and eye-catching.

The company, which has studios in Block 37 and Bucktown, relies on a global network of artists to create shoes that make a statement. Jason Peterson’s has designed a shoe that shows the movement of Chicago’s ‘L’ trains with a black and white photo. Personally, I will rarely even wear red, but designs like the Polarized Lace Up are dazzling.

8. Chicago Cubs History Tree Print

Did the Cubs megafan in your fam already deck themselves out in World Series Champions gear If so, the delightful Chicago Cubs History Tree print may be exactly what you’re looking for.

Sold online, this unframed 32″ X 24″ print gives a chronological representation of the Cubbies’ history. Big moments, like World Series wins or Hall of Fame players, are bigger than the “lovable losers” foliage. Just be sure your recipient doesn’t burn down the tree in celebration of the Curse of the Billy Goat‘s demise.

9. iPhone Cases from the Chicago Park District

We all know someone who heads to the beach or the park and then doesn’t peel away from their phones while under the summertime sun. The Chicago Park District has cooked up the perfect gift for them! They are offfering iPhone cases using imagery from iconic parks posters and signs.

The newer ones, like the “Curb Your Dog” case, will be familiar to anyone who has taken a stroll in Chicago. For my money, though, I like the retro art deco posters for park attractions like Buckingham Fountain. I’d buy one for myself, but I’m a Samsung user!

10. Chicago Detours Gift Card

A little self-promotion never hurt anyone! The last entry in the Chicago Gift Guide 2016 is a Chicago Detours gift card. You can give your loved ones an exploratory experience of Chicago’s history, architecture, and culture.

Gift cards can be purchased in increments of $25, $35, $50, $75, $100, and $200. They can be used towards any of our regularly-scheduled public walking tours. Outings like the Historic Chicago Walking Bar Tour or Loop Interior Architecture Tour stay mostly indoors, so they can use the gift card year-round.

No matter what you Chicago gift you may choose, I hope that the suggestions in our Chicago Gift Guide 2016 will help you knock a few names off your list. And as a small business, we thank you for shopping small and local!

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

1. The Oriental Institute

I’ll start with my favorite museum in the entire city. The Oriental Institute Museum, which is located on the University of Chicago campus, is dedicated to the ancient history of the Middle East. It contains thousands of artifacts from the ancient kingdoms of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia. The museum is worth a visit just to see the Yelda Khorsabad Court, which contains a nearly 3,000-year-old scultpture of a “16-foot tall, 40-ton, human-headed winged bull.” Admission is free (!), though the university does ask for a $10 donation.

2. Clarke House Museum

Of course, Chicago’s history only goes back about 200 years. The Clarke House Museum is dedicated to the history of those early years. It’s located in the oldest house in the city, down in the Prairie Avenue Historic District. The Neoclassical mansion was built in 1836, a year before the city was even incorporated. The museum showcases family life in the early 1800’s, when Chicago was just a trading post way out on the American frontier. Hard to imagine it today when we roll past on our custom Chicago Neighborhoods private tours.

3. National Veterans Art Museum

Truthfully, I wasn’t aware of this museum until recently. All the art in the museum was created by veterans of America’s foreign wars. It began as a traveling exhibit by Vietnam vets. Former Mayor Richard J. Daley helped find a permanent home for it in Chicago. It’s been located in the Six Corners neighborhood since 2012. The museum is small and seems to often be short of operating funds, so it may be best to visit while you still can.

4. McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum

Despite its iconic location, inside the Michigan Ave. bridge, the McCormick Bridgehouse and River Museum still qualifies as one of the off the beaten path Chicago museums. Since the entrance is down the on Riverwalk, an untold number of passersby don’t even know it’s there. I often mention it to guests as we walk past during Downtown Bucket List private tours. The museum is dedicated to the history, ecology, and engineering of the Chicago River and its famous bridges. We dedicated a whole blog post to this museum a few years back, so I’ll let that do most of the talking.

5. Polish Museum of America

Chicago’s Polish neighborhoods are a favorite topic of Chicago Detours, so I just had to mention the Polish Museum of America. It’s located in the old “Polish Downtown” in West Town, which we can easily visit on custom private tours of Chicago neighborhoods. This off the beaten path Chicago museum has popped up twice before on the blog, so I’ll just refer you to those posts. Not many ethnicities can claim as large or proud a heritage as Chicago’s Poles.

6. A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum

The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is located down on the South Side of Chicago in the new Pullman National Monument. As I wrote in a recent blog post, the Pullman Porter Museum focuses on the history of African-American workers and laborers. If you go down there, you could also make an excuse to swing by the Argus Brewery for a brewery tour and taste of the beer.

7. Leather Archives & Museum

The Leather Archives & Museum is an institution in Rogers Park dedicated to “the compilation, preservation, and maintenance of leather, kink, and fetish lifestyles.” The museum has been around since the 1990’s and includes exhibitions, archives, and a theater about the Leather subculture’s history. It is also the first museum I’ve encountered that has adults-only admission. It certainly seems worth a visit for those who are more than a little curious.

These off the beaten path Chicago museums show the diversity of history, art and cultures that exists in our metropolis. We are just sharing a few of these often overlooked Chicago museums–many more await you.
– Alex Bean, Office Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

The Heyday of Neon Signs

My first question for Mr. Freeman was about the neon sign’s golden age. He said that the signs were at their most popular from the 1930’s until the 1960’s. The signs get their signature glow when voltage is applied to the gases trapped inside sealed glass tubes. The voltage creates a luminescent plasma known as glow discharge. By the late 1920’s inventors and scientists had hammered out how different gases and coatings interacted to create the rainbow of colors we are familiar with. This distinctive illumination quickly caught on with advertisers around the world.

Mr. Freeman said that Chicago was a hotbed for neon signs. According to him, the city was more or less blanketed with them in the middle of the 20th century. The market for the signs was so huge that Chicago once hosted over 200 sign manufacturers. The two biggest clusters of neon signs were in the downtown commercial district and the strip of seedy motels along Lincoln Avenue and Western Avenue on the North Side.

Bad Reputations in Changing Times

Mr. Freeman said it was businesses like those sleazy motels that contributed to the doom of neon signs in Chicago. Increasingly people saw neon signs as old-fashioned and undesirable. In downtown Chicago, old movie palaces and other run-down businesses were the ones with neon signs, often with some broken letters. Block 37, which we often visit on our Downtown Bucket List private tours, got redeveloped for just these reasons. By the 1970’s, ordinances were passed against neon signs. Businesses that used the signs either shuttered or moved on to newer forms of advertising. The rise of national chains and franchising also contributed to the decline.

Even as all that happened, the art of manufacturing neon signs was being lost. Each sign is a custom design and has to be crafted by hand. That means that the cost of production and upkeep is relatively high. Since the neon sign manufacturing field was collapsing, few young workers signed on and learned the craft. The relative dearth of people capable of creating a neon sign drove prices and repairs even higher. By the 1980’s, the wholesale destruction of neon signs had begun.

Nostalgia and Preservation

When I talked to Mr. Freeman, we shared our thoughts on why neon signs can look so appealing. He said that the unique glow of neon gives them “that visceral impact…that’s directing a person’s attention.” It was an expansion on his thoughts from the forward to Good Old Neon, where he wrote that a great sign has an “elusive synchronicity of color, shape, typography, and iconography, enhanced by authenticity and eccentricity.”

I told him that for me, born well after the heyday of neon, these signs always had a strange desolate nostalgia and vintage appeal. I can remember many neon signs dotting commercial strips from my childhood, but even then they were a dying breed. It always struck me that those thin, glowing strands of light were very lonely. A small cry of resilience and expression against the enveloping black of night.

So are we living in the very twilight of neon signs So I asked Mr. Freeman if there were any preservation efforts for these signs. While no concerted effort has been made in Chicago, Freeman alerted me to two institutions that are undertaking preservation. The American Sign Museum, located in Cincinnati, preserves and displays the history of American signage. Many of the signs in their collection are originals that have been restored to their former glory. On the other side of the country, the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, houses an outdoor collection of the iconic neon signs from the Vegas Strip. Along with a small upswell of nostalgic support for this by-gone advertising, those collections may help preserve what was once a universal element of cityscapes across America, including Chicago.

– Alex Bean, Chicago Detours Office Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

The “Public” of Public Art

Last summer the designers of the Wabash Lights, Jack Newell and Seth Unger, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds for the beta test. They explained why the project was looking for crowd-sourced donations to fund the beta test.

“We are Kickstarting this project because it’s important to us that The Wabash Lights be seeded by the public. Public art is often created by one, paid for by few, but meant for everyone. We want to reverse that notion and bring the voice of the public into our project as donors and also designers.”

It’s fascinating to hear this statement of downtown public art coming from the people. Some of downtown’s other public art has been, as Newell and Unger say, commissioned and executed by a select few. As guests on our Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour know, the Chicago Picasso was carefully overseen by Mayor Richard J. Daley. He arranged for a $100,000 commission for Picasso from the Chicago Public Building Commission. The sculpture’s actual construction was paid for by three large charitable funds. That same method of top-down control is still widely used for public art commissions.

The Wabash Lights designers, on the other hand, will fund the complete installation through donations by corporations and foundations. Nevertheless, asking the general public for funding might speak to changing trends in the art world.

Interactivity of the Wabash Lights

The big hook of the Wabash Lights is the art installation’s interactive quality. Each LED light tube can have its display reprogrammed from the smartphones of passersby. The designers claim that each 1/2 inch section of the lights will be controllable. So if a pedestrian had a great day at work, she can turn a stretch of Wabash Avenue into a neon yellow reflection of their mood. Alternately, a street musician could create some mood lighting of his personal tastes for his street-corner stage. Eventually the Wabash Lights might turn this corner of the Loop into an attraction with its kaleidoscope of colors.

The full experience of the Wabash Lights will not be felt for a while yet. Plans call for the beta test to run for the next 6-12 months. In that time the lights will not be interactive. Instead, the designers will use the time to experiment with a variety of displays. Also they will troubleshoot any technological, logistical and design hurdles that spring up after installation and activation.

You can check out the Wabash Lights for yourself on Wabash between Monroe and Adams. The lights will turn on evening around dusk and stay on until 1 or 2 in the morning.

– Alex Bean, Office Manager and Tour Guide